Not too long ago, we wrote our review about a plugin called Pippity. In the comments, some users asked what is the difference between Pippity and the famous Popup Domination. As promised, we will be comparing the two plugins side by side to determine the pros and cons of each. We are friends with both Michael Dunlop of Popup Domination and Grant Griffiths of Pippity, so this is going to be as honest as it gets.
If you are wondering what the heck do these plugins do? Well in short, they allow you to create lightbox popups in WordPress to increase the opt-in rate for your email newsletter. Now lets see where do these plugins stand when you compare them side by side.
Features
Both plugins allow you to create lightbox popups for your WordPress site, but one has significantly better features that the other lack.
- Pippity lets you have multiple popups. Popup Domination does not.
- Pippity allows you the ability to do split A/B testing. Popup Domination does not.
- Pippity has Advanced Filters option for (referrer status, custom post types, open at the end of post and specific post). Popup Domination only allows you to pick in categories or specific pages.
- Pippity has analytics. Popup Domination does not.
- Pippity lets you show only to logged out users whereas Popup Domination doesn’t have this option.
- Pippity allows custom cookies, Popup Domination does not
- Pippity has a bonus Popup Bar feature
- Popup Domination has Exit Popups. Pippity does not.
- Popup Domination has the option to open popup when mouse leaves the site, Pippity does not.
If you notice Pippity clearly takes the win in the features category.
Ease of Use (UI/UX)
Both plugins are fairly easy to use however one plugin certainly makes the job a lot easier.
You have to manually click on the Popup Domination link as you are going through the process of creating a popup. There is no option to Save and Continue to the next step.
Pippity guides users by providing the option of Save and Continue at the end of each step. The overall User Interface of Pippity is much more friendly to new users whereas Popup Domination lacks styling on its pages like Template Fields, List points etc.
One thing that Pippity lacks in terms of UI is the Activate button which we pointed out in our video review. When you are done creating your popup, you never know that its inactive. You have to click on the little Activate button. Popup Domination because it only allows you to create one popup, has a clear way of telling the user when its inactive.
Winner: Pippity
Front-End Design
Beautiful designs increase conversion. Popup Domination comes with 7 pre-built templates whereas Pippity comes with 8 pre-built templates. While the designs are very similar which there was a big debate between the founders on Twitter, we believe that Popup Domination’s graphics are of better quality. Pippity’s templates seems to lack the designer touch that Popup Domination pre-built templates have.
Design is subjective to beholder’s eye, so in our eyes Popup Domination is a clear winner in this category.
This doesn’t turn away Pippity for us though because we can easily duplicate existing Pippity themes and modify its styling.
Developer Tools
Both plugins offer developer tools in terms of the ability to modify templates. Pippity however does an exceptionally great job at this. You can easily replicate existing themes and customize it. There is just much more support for Developer tools than it is in Popup Domination. Pippity also has the option to open lightboxes on click which allows developers to really customize things around. Popup Domination does not have such option (or they do not have clear documentation).
Our Pick
Pippity is definitely our pick. While we would never use any of their built-in templates, we would certainly use it with custom styles. The plugin offers tons of extra functionality that you cannot miss out on.
P.S. you can get 25% OFF on Pippity if you use the coupon “wpbeginner25“.
If you are getting Popup Domination, then the best way to get a discount is go to Popup Domination site. Try to X the window, and you will be prompted with an annoying Exit Popup which will give you the $10 OFF discount.
I’ve just tested PopUp Domination 3 (looks like the review is done for the previous version) and I’m really delighted. Is dead easy to use it and you can create the pop up in 10 minutes (including grabbing the opt-in details from your service and stuff).
I didn’t try Pippity and I might ask the owners to lend me a copy to try it
Looks like I will give Pippity a try. I originally purchased Pop-Up Domination 2.0 and within a few months they rolled out a newer version and wanted me to pay the entire fee again. I got an email and asked about an U/G path for existing customers….just like everyone here said, NO CUSTOMER SERVICE. Not to mention the very spammy way you have to work through multiple offers to even purchase their product. That tells a lot about how they work…..shaddy
Does anyone here know if Pippity works with the Agility theme (http://labs.sevenspark.com/Agility-HTML)? We are having a terrible time getting a popup plugin to work. We are on WP 3.4.1 right now, and using WP Super Cache. We don’t want to have to disable our cache to use modal popups. WPSubscribers flat out broke our site and no “fix” anyone suggested worked at all…not to mention the plugin and documentation all seem to be written in “translated” English, which makes it hard to read and sometimes hard to understand.
The best thing would be to ask the team at Pippity.
I wanted to like Pippity but the first one I bought did not work…then they sent me another one about a week ago (10/20) and it did not work. Now no support at all.
That’s too bad because I wanted to like it.
So You confirm that we can use our own styles with it ? Do you know if we can integrate an embed video ?
thanks
Yes, you can use your own styles. You would have to create a new template for the popup or customize an existing one. Yes, you can add videos too if you want.
After reading your reviews and having constant issues with Pop-Up domination every time I upgrade Word Press, I purchased Pippity.
I’m extremely disappointed.
I have spent hours and hours trying to get Pippity to work properly and the themes and templates don’t work.
1. When you fill out the text in the in create a pop-up options, it doesn’t show up. It won’t change from the default text. I tried different browsers, clearing my cache…I tried all the different themes.. they all did the same.
I even counted all the characters in the default text in case I had put too many in there. That didn’t make a difference either.
2. When I create a graphic to the exact specifications that it states it cuts half of it out. Or it formats it incorrectly.
3. If I want to go in and edit some of the settings in the pop-up I’ve created it automatically deletes / clears all the settings in there, so you have to go back and set it all up again.
I’ve contacted support and have requested a refund.
Whatever you do, DON’T bother with Popup Domination. They don’t respond to emails, won’t return your money EVEN if you request a refund within their 60-day period and the HTML is a nightmare to figure out. Check the forums and message boards. This isn’t just MY issue, it’s very common and they are doing NOTHING to address it.
I use the free optinpop plugin on my sites. It is available through the extend area on wordpress.org. Its not bad and I just discovered that I could modify the html file through the plugin editor within the admin area.
My first objection to Pippity was the subscription price. I didn’t like the fact that it was an annual subscription.
However, I noticed that the popups will still work, you just won’t receive updates and support after it expires. Doh! I didn’t read the FAQ. So I missed the initial sale of the plugin.
But the 25% off here is pretty cool so I may jump in yet.
@Joseph Dang There is an annual subscription for the simple fact we want a sustainable business. One which we know will be here for the long haul. One which can provide innovation and support into the future.
@GrantGriffiths@Joseph Dang I’m hoping that you provide better customer service than Popup and have some support. I don’t mind paying the subscription if I get VALUE in return, something that Popup does NOT have.
@BeckyBlanton@Joseph Dang The product and making money is not the only concern a plugin company should have on their mind. The most important aspect is customers and the support we provide them.
Rest assured, when you purchase Pippity, you not only get a great product. You get great support to back that product up.
Without great support to back up a great product you end up with a empty community. Or worse, a community of users totally upset with you. Not going to happen with Pippity.
My first objectino
One important difference not mentioned above is the level of customer service between the two. Readers should know that I also prefer Pippity because of the amazing features, but more importantly for me, the response time I received from the plugin developer was amazing when I had a question, and also some feature requests.
If you look at the “Get Satisfaction” page for Popup Domination you will quickly see the lack of response…which to me indicates that all they cared about was user’s money…not a quality product.
Get Pippity, you’ll be happier;)
@Adam W. Warner Thanks Adam. Nicky is an amazing developer and we are thrilled to be working with him and his partner on Pippity. We feel it is a great addition to what we offer with http://headwaythemes.com
It’s my pleasure @GrantGriffiths , you’ve got yourself a quality team;)
Adam – thanks for the kind words and it’s my pleasure to help when I can!
By the way, filtering by custom post type is all set for the next release, just working on a few other things. Thanks for the suggestion!
-Nicky
I don’t suppose you will answer my support questions if I send them as a comment? Maybe spend less time thanking people who you have helped and more time helping people like me that just cannot get a response?
I like Pippity but would rather not use an email subscription site; would rather emails just come to me…I sent an inquiry to them about this some time ago but no reply.